Growing Up Aint All It's Cracked Up To Be
by hotchadobsessed
Summary: When the Cullens come across a tragic accident and choose to take in the sole survivor, Bella learns what it's likes to grow up in a house of vampires. Read about the trials and tribulations this entails.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Don't own _Twilight_ or anything in this story that you might recognise hearing/seeing somewhere else :)

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It was the middle of the night, a full moon was high in the sky illuminating the spot where a fierce battle was taking place between a deer and a... human? At least that's what it looked like. But in actuality, the human, who was not a human at all, had the deer firmly in his grasp as he sucked the animal dry.

As he finished off the animal and tossed the carcass aside, he opened his eyes to the night sky above him, revealing warm butterscotch eyes. The still night was suddenly pierced with a high pitched screech as metal crunched against metal. Noting the noise was not far away, he ran towards the sound with blinding speed.

He couldn't believe his eyes as he came across the scene in which the sound had resonated from. Two cars had managed to wrap themselves around each other and were indistinguishable from the other. He was disappointed to note that there were no sounds coming from the inhabitants inside the mangled wreck, including no heartbeats, which meant no life. No one had survived the terrible collision in front of him, but thankfully, no blood had been spilt as it seemed all had died from internal injuries. He didn't know how long he had been standing there, just looking onto the scene with sadness, until he felt a presence join him.

"Alice." He greeted sadly. She didn't say anything in response but simply gathered him in her arms for a hug.

As the two turned to leave the tragic scene, their acute hearing picked up a faint sound. They turned towards the noise. Strangely, it was coming from the accident in front of them. Alice didn't hesitate as she ran towards the vehicle the sound was coming from, and found a small toddler strapped into her car chair in the back seat. The child still had her eyes closed, but as Alice moved forward, she picked up the faint heartbeat of the child and realised that the child was simply knocked unconscious, not dead like they first thought.

"Jasper!" Alice called to the man behind her urgently. Jasper didn't need to be told twice as he ran to his wife's side. Jasper froze as he pinpointed that the noise was coming from the small girl. Jasper fought to control the bloodlust as he reached in to collect the girl into his arms. As she was still young, her blood was not emitting a strong fragrance, but the floral scent was still there and he thought to hold his breath to be on the safe side.

"What do we do now?" Alice whispered to him, though both were unsure why as there was no one around to witness them.

"Maybe we should take her to see Carlisle?" Jasper suggested as he looked down at the angelic face of the unconscious child in his arms.

"Or maybe we could just leave her here? I'm sure someone will come across the accident eventually." A new voice spoke up as he joined the group.

"That could be ages away! She could die, Edward." Alice argued as she turned to her brother with a scowl on her face.

"And that's our problem because?" Edward shrugged.

"I thought you didn't want to be a monster?" Alice questioned as she stared at him incredulously. Edward immediately felt guilt gnaw at him as he realised what he was suggesting did mean that he was a monster. How could he even think that it would be ok to leave this girl out here to die?

"Well I guess that's settled then." Jasper spoke up, feeling Edward's changing mood. "To the house we go."

Jasper led the way cradling the small girl to his chest as the three of them set off towards home.

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**A/N: So I know this has been done a thousand times, but I wanted to try my hand at it. Kind of really have only one scene that I really want to write - so any suggestions are welcome!**

**Please read & review/add (or both!)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaime:** I do not own _Twilight_ or anything in this story that you have read/seen/heard somewhere else.

**AN:** So this chapter sucks - just to warn ya :) I don't think I'm very good with this young Bella thing, so I will probably do a time jump after the next chapter (just give me one chapter to tie up some loose ends like how Bella ends up living with the Cullens etc) and then hopefully I get a bit more creative after that.

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Jasper, Alice and Edward entered the house with the small girl still out cold in Jasper's arms. While Jasper and Alice moved into the living room, ready to explain the situation to the rest of the family, Edward flew up the stairs to his room. He wanted nothing to do with the family's decision regarding the child and knew that the conversation, including everyone's thoughts on the matter, would just irritate him.

Jasper and Alice heeded Edward no mind as they perched on the sofa and awaited the arrival of the rest of the family.

"Family meeting." Alice called in the empty room and watched as Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett each appeared in the room, having arrived at vampire speed.

As soon as the other vampires noticed the small child being held by Jasper, the questions came flying thick and fast.

"Who is she?"

"Where did you find her?"

"What happened?"

"A new toy!" the last remark obviously coming from Emmett.

Esme and Rosalie immediately approached Jasper and each held out their arms in expectance of being able to hold the child, however Jasper shook his head at them, having grown attached to the girl in the past half an hour.

Esme understood and was content to play with the small child's long brown locks, while Rosalie glared at her brother's behaviour and made her way back to Emmett's side.

"Ooh, she's going to wake up in 3 minutes." Alice exclaimed to the group, moving closer to Jasper's side so that she could be ready when the child opened her eyes.

"Maybe we should discuss this before she wakes up then?" Carlisle suggested.

"What's there to discuss? She's beautiful and would fit right into our family." Alice said, still looking at the girl. She winked as she glanced up at Carlisle and tapped her temple. "I've seen it."

"How would the girl be able to grow up in a house of vampires?" Rosalie asked, ever the practical one.

"The girl would be fine. She's young now so her scent isn't overwhelming to us, and if she grows up here surely we would be desensitised to it when it gets stronger." Jasper explained.

"Ok so we won't want to kill the girl. That's great. But wouldn't the girl notice something not right about us?" Rosalie insisted.

"I'm sure we could..." Alice started but was cut off by Esme.

"Can we stop calling her _the girl_. Surely she has a name."

Everyone turned expectantly to Alice as if she would have seen this. But she merely shrugged in response to all of the inquisitive faces.

"Maybe the mind reader knows." Alice suggested as she indicated to the floor above her where Edward had disappeared to. The only response was silence.

"I guess we'll have to do this the old fashioned way and ask her when she comes to." Carlisle reasoned.

"Which will be in exactly 5 seconds." Alice announced. "5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

On one, the small girl opened her big brown eyes to see 6 people looking down at her. No one spoke as they stared at her in wonder so she felt the need to break the silence.

"Um, hi." The child mumbled. The sound of her little 3 year old voice seemed to awaken those around her from whatever had kept them silent, and there were suddenly voices coming from every direction.

"Hi sweetie."

"It's nice to see you awake."

"Are you hurt anywhere?"

"What's your name?"

"We're so going shopping!"

Overwhelmed by everyone, the girl turned away from the family and snuggled deeper into Jasper's chest. Carlisle saw this and put up a hand to stop the family from continuing with their onslaught. Everyone fell silent as Carlisle crouched in front of where Jasper was sitting.

"Hi." Carlisle started gently. "Can you tell us your name?"

The girl turned in Jasper's arms to face the nice man and answered in a small voice.

"Bella."

"That's a nice name, Bella. Can you tell me what happened earlier tonight?"

Bella shook her head at his question. "Not really, one minute I was in the car with my parents, and the next thing I know I am here with all of you."

"Ok then. Are you hurt anywhere?" Carlisle was suddenly in doctor mode. Bella pointed at her head and shoulder, but nothing else.

"How about I take a look, would that be alright?"

Bella nodded as Carlisle began checking her over to make sure there was nothing seriously wrong with the girl. When he didn't find anything amiss, he stood.

"Well Bella I have some good news and some bad news. Which would you like first?"

Bella giggled as she replied. "Good news."

"Well the good news is that you are perfectly fine. The bad news is that now that I know that, and everyone in this room knows that, there's nothing that's going to stop them from ambushing you with questions." Carlisle imitated a shudder as he smiled down at the girl.

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**AN:** Ugh, it's worse than I thought. Ok I will try harder! Please, please, please, if you have any ideas drop me a line.

Read & review


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** I do not own _Twilight _or anything you read in here that you faintly recall reading/hearing/seeing somewhere else.

**AN:** Huge thank you to: _gundamseeddestiny, vivx-chan, sheeiur22, the love of hate_. I am very thankful for your reviews. It's nice to know people are actually reading this story because I have no idea if this is any good or not.

Hope you enjoy!

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After being attacked with questions about everything, ranging from how old she was to her favourite food, Esme had insisted that Bella go to bed and taken her upstairs to Alice and Jasper's room. When she returned, the Cullens all moved to the dining room in order to have a family meeting. Surprisingly, Edward decided to finally join them, obviously intent on having his opinion on the matter heard.

Carlisle took the head of the table, while the rest of the family places themselves around him, in order of their being turned, with Esme and Edward on either side of Carlisle.

"Ok, contrary to what Alice has seen," Carlisle began, shooting a glance at the ever smiling Alice, "we should consider if it is really wise to let Bella live here with us."

"She's so cute."

"I'd have someone to play with."

"She's adorable."

"Absolutely not."

Everyone started throwing comments at Carlisle. Carlisle held up his hand to quieten them.

"One at a time. We'll go around the table." Carlisle motioned for Esme to go first.

"I don't see any problems with it. Sure, we're vampires, but we have refrained from human blood for a long time now, some of us have never even tasted a drop," Esme smiled at Rosalie next to her, who grinned smugly back. "I think we'd be the perfect family to take her in. We would keep her safe and would love her with everything we have."

"As most of you know, when I was human there was nothing I wanted more in this world than a child. I can't say my view on that has changed since I became immortal. I would love for Bella to be a part of this family, and maybe she can make my dreams come true." Rosalie ended on a whisper.

"I say hell yes." Emmett spoke enthusiastically. "Who wouldn't want the squirt running around here? And like Jasper said, the more we get to know her and have her around, the less likely we would be to want to suck her blood. I say it's a win-win situation."

"I have to agree." Jasper nodded. "She would be safe with us, and she'd probably have a more fulfilling childhood if she grew up with us. We could teach her so many things and in return, she could teach us."

"Oh please." Alice waved off the waiting looks the family were giving her. "You clearly already know my answer. To me, Bella is already a part of this family."

"Have you all forgotten that we're _vampires _and Bella is _human_?" Edward asked incredulously. "This house is no place for a 3 year old to be growing up. She would be in danger every second of her life."

"But Jasper said…" Emmett tried to interrupt.

"I don't care what Jasper said!" Edward yelled. "It's not like he has experience with something like this. He could be wrong."

"Edward, come on." Rosalie tried to reason with her brother. "You saw what happened to the poor girl tonight. She has lost her entire family. Why shouldn't we give her a home?"

"Rosalie, I thought you of all people would have been against this idea. If things go bad, we're going to have to move." Edward reasoned.

"Nothing's going to go bad." Alice rolled her eyes. "Stop being such a pessimist."

"Moving is just a way of life for us, Edward." Rosalie huffed while crossing her arms.

"The way I see it," Carlisle took charge of the situation. "Only Edward is against the idea of Bella living with us. And he has a fair point. It will be dangerous to have a human around." Carlisle held up his hand to stop Alice who was clearly about to interrupt. "But I don't see why we can't at least try. We'll adopt Bella."

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In the morning, Alice and Jasper had taken it upon themselves to share the good news with Bella, and were sitting on the bed waiting for her to wake up. First, it was Bella's breathing that gave the indication that she was about to wake up, then it was the slightest movement of her eyelids as well as the brief clenching of her fists. Soon, Bella opened her eyes to find the two strangers watching her.

"Good morning." Bella greeted hesitantly.

"Hi Bella!" Alice sang, while Jasper just threw a small smile. "We have the bestest news."

"Ok." Bella sat up so her back was against the headboard and waited for Alice to continue.

"We're adopting you!" Alice clapped happily, bouncing on the spot.

"Ok." Bella repeated, unsure exactly what this meant.

"I think you're confusing her, darling." Jasper commented, feeling the confusion wash over the small child.

"Oh, basically all it means is that you get to live here with us." Alice explained. "Isn't that super exciting?"

"You mean like for the week?" Bella asked.

"No silly. Forever."

"But… But…What about mummy and daddy?" Bella stammered.

"Um…" Alice was stumped. How was she going to explain to a 3 year old that her parents were dead?

"Sweetie, there's something we have to tell you." Jasper began.

"Breakfast!" Esme called as she entered the room with a full breakfast on a tray. She flitted over to the bed and placed the tray over Bella's lap so she could easily reach it all.

"I can't believe you were going to tell her about her parents now." Esme spoke quickly to Jasper so Bella wouldn't be able to tell what was being said, or in fact that they were even speaking.

"We have to tell her eventually." Jasper spoke back equally fast.

"Carlisle is going to deal with it." Esme responded, before turning to help Bella with her breakfast.

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Later that morning, Bella was down in the living room, playing with some random toys that Rosalie had run out to get. She hadn't questioned why she was still with the Cullens, nor did she remember the conversation she had been having with Alice and Jasper this morning about them adopting her. Ah, the joys of a child's mind.

Carlisle didn't want to delay the inevitable any longer however, and soon joined Bella downstairs. Sitting next to her, Carlisle tried to bring up the subject.

"So I heard Alice gave you some news this morning."

"Did she?" Bella asked distracted.

"She mentioned you staying with us?" Carlisle tried again.

"I guess." Bella shrugged. Carlisle gently removed the toys from Bella's reach so he could speak to her properly.

"Would you like to live here with us?"

"I guess for a little while. I mean I'd have to eventually go back to my mummy and daddy, right?" Bella answered. Carlisle didn't respond straight away.

"Right?" Bella asked again.

"Actually honey, there's something I wanted to talk to you about." Carlisle began. "Do you remember why you're here?"

"I told you I didn't." Bella shook her head.

"Well, Alice and Jasper came across a horrible accident last night. There was nothing they could do, everyone was already gone."

"Gone? Gone where?" Bella asked innocently.

"Gone to heaven." Carlisle explained gently. Bella's mouth opened in surprise, remembering her mummy telling her about that place.

"Bella, I wish I didn't have to tell you this, but your parents were in that accident, and so were you." Carlisle continued. Bella shook her head in denial.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but it's true. You're here because Alice and Jasper brought you here. You were the only one who survived."

Bella gulped loudly, trying to process the information as much as her little brain would let her.

"Mummy and daddy aren't coming back, are they?" Bella asked quietly, looking up at Carlisle with tear filled eyes.

"No honey, they're not." Carlisle admitted. "But we would love for you to stay here and be apart of this family. What do you say?"

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**AN:** So like I said last chapter, I was going to do a time jump after this chapter. I was thinking of fast forwarding ahead to when Bella is a teenager. But I am happy to hear your suggestions. I am a people pleaser so I want to give you guys what you want. If you want to see more baby Bella I will try my hardest to deliver.


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